central Illinois Steel supplier?

[Mikek]

anyone here know of a place to get steal cheap in central illinois. here in pekin we have one place and they mark it up to heck and gone, las night i paid 6.50 for a 20 foot piece of 3/16" hot rolled.. last time i bought some it was like 3.00 each! and thier selection isnt very good.. when my dad was my age there was a place around here that sold scrap steel (odd lots leftovers but usable stock) for a little over scrap... just about ready to pull out my hair.. thanks for any help
Mike

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Mike,
I am actually about an hour north of you in Henry, but I work in Peoria Heights 5 days a week. There is a place in Peru (an addition 40 minutes north of Henry) called Machinery Maintenance where I go for all my steel. You would have to figure in the cost of gas to get there and back so it might not be much of a savings, but i believe their prices are a little lower than what you described above (I think you paid $2.80 per pound?). I don't have the phone number off hand but directory assistance can probably help. They carry a pretty good selection of hot and cold rolled and some tool steels, and can special order many more.

As far as scrap yards go, Good Luck. Most of the scrapyards in the area have switched over to straight recycling and don't even let you in the gate unless you are dropping off scrap. I have heard some stories of different places that will trade even up for any scrap you bring in, but these are unconfirmed. There IS a place in Eureka called Lee's Metals. Lee has been very good about letting me roam around the place and hand pick scrap, but it is a VERY small yard and the pickings are usually pretty slim (mostly junked autos, aluminum, and tubing/pipe but every once in a while there will be a load of solid steel bars and rounds etc.)

Just out of curiousity, do you get your coal from City Coal and Asphalt down by the bridge? There price seems a bit high, but it is supposedly Pocahontas vein coal that is being trucked in from a coal yard in Indiana, so the shipping/freight is alot of the price. I have had good luck with it, just make sure you buy it in bulk and not the bags. I usually just take down a couple of empty oil barrels on the trailer and fill them up. A 50 gallon barrel equals roughly 500 pounds and cost me about $56 dollars last time I went (might be more now).

Drop me a message if you need any other info about the area, or just to say hi what's up.
-Aaron @ the SCF

[Mikek]

i used to get my coal from city coal and asphault untill the jacked up thier prices again, and then i built my gasser, since our in henry maybe we could get together sometime and pound some steel, always looking to learn from someone more experienced than i
thanks
Mike